See Photos below by Colette McNally, Halo Photography
Ten prestigious Garda Youth Awards were presented at Punchestown at the annual Kildare Garda Youth Awards in association with Newbridge Silverware on Friday evening.
The event MC was 2FM’s Keith Walsh and those in attendance included Assistant Garda Commissioner Michael Finn, Garda Chief Superintendent Brian Sutton, Superintendent Declan McCarthy and Newbridge Silverware’s Martin Kilduff and Simone Hassett-Costelloe.
This is the third year of the Kildare Garda Youth Awards in association with Newbridge Silverware.
The awards celebrate outstanding young people between the ages of 13 and 21 years. Kildare Gardaí along with Newbridge Silverware recognise that a lot of good work is being done by young people in every community throughout the county, which should be awarded.
The Overall Winner was announced on the night as Monasterevin Youth Action who are a voluntary community group established in 2012 comprising of members from the local community around Monasterevin.
The group developed out of an awareness around a lack of opportunities, facilities and activities available to young people that were alternatives to sports, and the group have a vision to develop and sustain a safe, fun, creative space in which young people can socialise with their friends and can engage in programmes and activities based on their own needs/interests.
The Special Achievement Award this year goes to a thoroughly deserving individual Eoin Sheridan from Newbridge. Eoin was born with Di George Syndrome and attends St. Anne’s School in The Curragh. He is an incredibly inspirational young person who is always challenging himself. He has been a member of the Jumping Jellybeans Foroige club for the last 7 years. Last year as part of the club Eoin was involved in raising money from “Operation Transformation” which helped raise money for a specially adapted bus for St. Anne’s school.
Eoin has also completed the Dublin City marathon and with the help of his dad and some friends. Together they raised almost €8000 for his two chosen charities, The Jack and Jill Foundation & The Curragh Lourdes Fund. Eoin Sheridan is quite deserving to be awarded the Special Achievement Award in this year’s Kildare Garda Youth Awards in association with Newbridge Silverware.
There were eight other award categories presented on the night with Kevin 5 from the Salesian College in Celbridge taking the Group Award. This group refurbished a memorial garden in the school where a memorial plaque remembering the men from Celbridge, Straffan and Ardclough who fought and died in World War 1, was unveiled at a commemoration ceremony on Friday, 9th November, 2018 marking the 100 year anniversary of Armistice Day.
A Community Safety Award was presented to Lauren O’Rourke from Rathangan who was involved in a Project called “Confident Compressions”. This is a project that trained 800 people in hands only CPR. Lauren worked closely with the Irish Heart Foundation in promoting and raising awareness for skills in CPR. Lauren was also involved with the ‘First Responders’ Group in Rathangan where she carried out an audit in the town of the AED’s locations and as well as providing images of them during the presentation.
There were also two Garda Youth Awards presented for each Garda District within the Division of Co. Kildare and the winners were announced as Kevin Jackson and Niamh Bracken from the Leixlip District, Conor McCabe and Sean Molly from the Kildare District and Jamie Carroll and Aaron Cullen from the Naas District.
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